Chapter 16: The Sinner Stained with Her Brother’s Blood

She slaughtered all the demonic Cultivators who had invaded the Heavenly Sword Sect.

The endless despair in Xu Moli's heart…

…finally found a moment of relief.

She calmly scanned her surroundings, looking at the late-arriving reinforcements of the Righteous Path; no one dared to meet her gaze, and even her acquaintances from the Heavenly Sword Sect were startled into retreating several steps.

What kind of look was that?

Anger?

Sorrow?

No, it was something more extreme—an empty void of having lost everything.

While it struck fear into their hearts, a doubt couldn't help but arise: was the young girl before them truly still "human"?

Describing her as a "living corpse"…

…might be more appropriate.

Xu Moli remained expressionless, completely ignoring these Righteous Path Cultivators as she took to the air on her sword, returning toward the Heavenly Sword Sect.

"Brother, what exactly happened three years ago?"

The young girl thought to herself.

She wasn't foolish; after avenging her brother, she keenly realized one thing: if Xu Xi truly considered her a burden, he wouldn't have arrived to rescue her so coincidentally.

This meant that from beginning to end, Xu Xi had been silently watching over her.

But.

Since he cared so much…

…why did he act so heartlessly back then, even leaving the Heavenly Sword Sect and severing all contact between them?

Carrying her doubts and confusion, Xu Moli flew straight to Senjian Peak of the Heavenly Sword Sect. If anyone could provide answers, it was undoubtedly the siblings' teacher, Li Wanshou.

Before long…

…Xu Moli saw the old man recovering from his injuries after the great battle.

She told him everything that had happened.

Li Wanshou was silent for a long time before finally sighing, "Forget it, forget it. What use is there in hiding it now?"

"Since he appeared before you, he must have been prepared for you to learn the whole truth."

Looking at the blood-stained wooden sword in Xu Moli's hand…

Li Wanshou stroked his beard and shook his head, revealing the full story of how Xu Xi had sacrificed everything to create the External Spiritual Root to save Mo Li, and how he chose to leave without saying goodbye to prevent her from finding out.

Such a truth, such a reality, was clearly far beyond Xu Moli's expectations.

She could never have imagined…

…that the illness which had plagued her for seven long years…

…would be cured at the cost of her brother's everything.

Her brother had burned his life, his cultivation, and his Spiritual Root. She couldn't imagine what kind of mindset he had while living in such agony every day.

Even on the last day of his life, he dragged his broken body to save his sister's life.

"I…"

Xu Moli's pupils trembled violently.

The tragic scene of her brother's death replayed constantly before her eyes, deepening her despair and making her heart ache even more.

It hurts so much.

Intense pain surged through her entire body.

Especially her stomach, which was twitching with pain.

Her eyes were sore, as if they still wanted to shed tears, but they had long since run dry. The pain grew sharper until she couldn't even see her own hands clearly.

Looking down at her hands and feet, she felt as if they were covered in sinful blood.

"It's all my fault, it's all my fault!"

If it weren't for her, her brother would surely be alive and well, enjoying the admiring gazes of others as the number one Prodigy under the spotlight.

Instead of being like this…

…without even a corpse remaining.

Yes, it was all her fault. She was a burden, a sinner stained with her brother's blood.

"Brother…"

Having learned the whole truth, the young girl left the peak of Senjian Peak in a daze and returned to the Immortal Cave where the two siblings had lived together for twelve years, searching every corner like a madwoman.

After searching for a long time, she finally found a small Storage Ring.

It contained a large amount of cultivation resources.

Left behind by Xu Xi years ago.

The girl didn't care about the quantity of resources; what she cared about was that this was one of the few items her brother had left in the world, a gift with special meaning.

In the time that followed…

…the young girl locked herself in the Immortal Cave, neither cultivating nor heeding the Sect's summons.

She just sat quietly in the deepest room of the Immortal Cave.

She opened the Storage Ring and poured out all its contents, letting the items imbued with Xu Xi's scent completely submerge her.

As if by doing so…

…she could create the atmosphere that Xu Xi was still by her side.

But as she was pouring, Xu Moli suddenly discovered a unique item among the many things she had emptied out. It was neither a cultivation resource nor an extremely rare treasure.

It was a jar of candy.

A sugar jar packed to the brim.

"This is…"

Xu Moli's originally lifeless eyes regained a hint of luster. Her arm was slightly stiff as she picked up the sugar jar and took out a hard candy to put in her mouth.

The taste was very familiar.

But something was also not quite right.

It seemed that because it had been stored for too long…

…it was no longer edible.

No, that's not right. It wasn't that it had been stored too long, but that she had discovered it too late.

The girl's tears fell silently once again. If she had found this sugar jar in the first year after Xu Xi left, she surely could have finished them all while they were at their best.

But she hadn't.

She was so useless—so useless that she hated herself for it.

"I want to atone… I must, I must… bring my brother back to life…"

"No matter… what the cost…"

Her voice, sounding mentally broken, carried both a sob and determination.

The next day.

Xu Moli's figure vanished from the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Without any announcement or parting words, she disappeared without a trace.

It was said that someone had accidentally seen Xu Moli in a Mortal city named Blackstone City. At that time, she had used great magic to move a wooden cabin, shedding tears of blood as if she were wailing.

Later on, someone saw Xu Moli in a Legacy Immortal Cave.

Her cultivation had already reached the Nascent Soul Stage.

Acting with overwhelming force, she had slain a Soul Transformation Cultivator.

The name "Immortal Slayer" shocked the entire Cultivation World.

Slaughter—endless slaughter—until the entire Demonic Path was annihilated.

It was as if she had an irreconcilable blood feud with demonic Cultivators. By her own power, she slaughtered them until the Demonic Path was nearly extinct, provoking a Demonic Path giant at the Undergoing Tribulation stage to take action, yet she still managed to escape.

Not only that…

…when Xu Moli appeared again, she had actually reached a Breakthrough to the Undergoing Tribulation stage herself.

With a single sword strike, she used a Great Divine Ability to wipe that Undergoing Tribulation demonic Cultivator and the top-tier Demonic Path Sect behind him from the face of the earth.

As for what happened after that, the Cultivators did not know.

Xu Moli's talent was far too Prodigiously Heaven-Defying.

The Lower Realm could no longer contain her.

She didn't deign to remain in the Cultivation World any longer, as if there was nothing left for her here. Thus, she opened the Heavenly Gate with her sword; before her cultivation had even met the requirements for Ascension, she used a supreme offensive Divine Ability to open the path and charged into the Immortal Realm alone.

"Impudent! A Mortal being dares to trespass into the Immortal Realm!"

"To meet an immortal and not bow—your name shall be inscribed upon the Rebirth Stele!"

"Mortal, seeing me is like a frog in a well looking at the bright moon. Even if you have entered the Immortal Dao, seeing this Emperor should be like a mayfly peering at the blue sky."

She slaughtered her way through, her cultivation breaking through along the way.

She encountered countless powerful enemies.

But with only a wooden sword, Xu Moli slaughtered until no one in the Immortal Realm dared to act arrogantly.

The name "Immortal Slayer," which had been notoriously famous in the Lower Realm, swept through the Immortal Realm as well. In the end, even the high and mighty Immortal Emperors could not escape that Heaven-Slaying Sword Strike.